Officials aim for more mileage from No. 1 ranking

For the past year, Sarasota tourism has basked in the sunny glow of Siesta Key's No. 1 ranking from "Dr. Beach."

THOMAS BECNELStaff writer

For the past year, Sarasota tourism has basked in the sunny glow of Siesta Key's ranking as the nation's No. 1 beach.

Call it the Leatherman Effect.

Each year, just before Memorial Day, a new No. 1 is announced by "Dr. Beach," Stephen Leatherman, a coastal science professor at Florida International University in Miami. This year, local tourism officials have to wonder about the lingering effect of Siesta Beach's international fame.

How long can it last?

Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, the county's tourism agency, compares the beach ranking to winning a beauty contest.

Sarasota just completed its best tourism season ever, as measured by hotel and condominium occupancy, but it's hard to say how much was due to the No. 1 ranking.

At the least, it was worth millions of dollars in free publicity and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in additional visitor spending.

Siesta is the seventh Florida beach to receive Leatherman's top ranking. Pinellas County has had two top beaches in the last seven years. Once Leatherman ranks a beach tops, however, it is removed from the professor's list the following year — forever.

But snagging the No. 1 spot tends to have a long shelf life.

"We still get calls about Fort DeSoto, because it was ranked No. 1 in 2005," says David Downing, deputy director of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater. "And you can migrate to his list of All-Time Best Beaches. That's the second life for this accolade.

"He has a good brand. He has a powerful brand."

Even "Dr. Beach" rankings fade with time, though. Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys was ranked No. 1 in 1992, which seems like ancient history to some.

"We're proud of it — we have a sign out front — but we don't get many people asking about it," says park manager Eric Kiefer. "Not this many years later."

Will Seccombe, chief marketing officer for Visit Florida in Tallahassee, enjoys the ebb and flow of the Leatherman surveys. Every few years, a new No. 1 ranking adds to the big picture of Florida fun in the sun.

"Ultimately, the real value is statewide," Seccombe says. "We've got 825 miles of the most amazing beaches in the country."

Perfect timing

In 2010, Siesta Beach was poised to receive the No. 1 ranking, after being runner-up the year before. Then came the BP oil spill, which cast a pall over the Gulf Coast, and Leatherman chose Coopers Beach in New York.

In 2011, Siesta was fine, Leatherman was back and Sarasota was ready.

"The timing could not have been better," Haley says. "After the oil spill, and the death of those British tourists in Newtown, this was the best news — we had the No. 1 beach in the country."

The county tourism agency invested $44,000 in a TV satellite truck that could beam live broadcasts and interviews to stations and networks across the nation.

Leatherman appeared on programs such as the "Today" show and "Good Morning America."

Erin Duggan, communications director for Visit Sarasota County, remembers worrying that Siesta Beach would look deserted at 7 o'clock in the morning.

"We got this woman we know to pull her kids out of school and there they were, making sand castles," she says, laughing. "And Virginia Haley's mom was in a chair reading a beach book."

In July, Visit Sarasota paid Leatherman's expenses for a promotional trip to London. Travel writers and tour operators heard him explain how he ranked things such as the fine quality of sand on Siesta Beach.

When journalists asked about the murder of two British tourists, it sounded like they thought it happened outside Sarasota.

"They kept referring to it as 'Newton,'" Duggan says, "and I wasn't going to correct them."

Beaches and more

Even now, tides of publicity continue to wash over the Gulf Coast.

This weekend, the Society of American Travel Writers is having its annual meeting in Sarasota. These journalists will learn, if they don't know already, that sandy Sarasota is also home to arts and culture.

"We use Siesta Beach to get in the door," Duggan says, "but then we're able to promote other things."

Pinellas County still bills itself as home to America's best beaches.

In the Panhandle, where three beaches have made it to the top of Leatherman's annual list, sunny branding extends to the name of the region's transportation hub.

Visitors to Panama City fly into Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

Haley has spent the last year plastering "No. 1 Beach" onto any and every kind of promotion for Sarasota and Siesta Key.

Surveys of international tourists found that 6 percent of them were visiting Sarasota on their first trip to Florida. In previous years, that figure was more like 1 or 2 percent.

"Usually," Haley says, "we're part of their second or third trip to Florida."

She is looking forward to Memorial Day this year, even though it means Leatherman will be naming a new No. 1 beach. The national media will no doubt mention Siesta Beach as a past winner.

"We expect to get another boost out of it," Haley says. "We've got promotions going all through summer."

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